WORK‐RELATED ATTITUDES OF ACADEMIC STAFF AT AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES: PART 1 — THE SURVEY AND ITS FINDINGS

A survey of the work‐related attitudes and demographic charcteristics of academic staff is reported. Nine institutions were surveyed: two universities and two colleges of advanced education in each of Western Australia and New South Wales, plus the largest university in New Zealand. The attitudinal items related to publication, research, teaching methods, relevance of local needs, the reward structure, the administrative hierarchy, administrative duties, the work environment, colleagues, mobility, geographical isolation and professional association meetings. The demographic characteristics surveyed included faculty, sex, rank, age, level of qualification, publications and place of highest qualification. Differences between the demographic characteristics of universities and colleges, and between the institutions of each group are reported. The attitudinal items used and the method of extracting meaningful attitudinal variables from these items are discussed. The attitudinal analysis permits the role differentiation between the institutions to be examined, and this discussion is the subject of a companion paper.